DownunderAudio.com - High End cables "Smoke and mirrors and snake oil"

“High End Cables” or Smoke and Mirrors? - By Joseph Kendall

My take:

So as my daily troll..I mean stroll around the internet I found an interesting company in the UK selling audio cables. The prices are excellent and the build quality top notch. Surprisingly the prices were not of the esoteric range that I am used to seeing for these released and iterations.

I stumbled across an article which they posted that really took my eye. Yes it is definitely playing with a Crocodile bringing this subject up but it is something that I found very interesting and compelled to share!

So after some communication with Paul of http://referencefidelitycomponents.co.uk I have been given permission to repost and share this article. I hope you enjoy!

“High End Cables” or Smoke and Mirrors? Written by Reference Fidelity Components.

"...How often have some of you wondered what was in a cable and whether it made any difference? Well, the truth is that most so called “high end” (we prefer the term “high fidelity” or “quality”) marketing on leads contains so much smoke and mirrors that many can be taken in by some of the wilder claims.

Here’s a few examples of why some cables marketed as “high end” don’t actually work properly or do what they say on the tin:

1. Some manufacturers claim high frequency benefits of silver plating on copper conductors due to the “skin effect”. The truth is that this has absolutely no impact (zero, not one iota) at audio frequencies and silver plated copper has its origins not in hifi but in other industrial and military applications where preventing the copper from corrosion and work hardening was the reason for plating.

2. Consider the claims of the benefits of adding exotic materials to somehow “tune” the sound. If the signal is being changed to alter the sound AT ALL, then it is clearly being degraded somehow. In fact there are some “high end” cables which are purposefully designed to roll off hf and marketed for “bright” sounding systems. Would you part with a large sum of money to buy something that degraded the signal which your source components are trying to recreate so faithfully? No. I credit my customers with more common sense!

3. What about the affects of materials like silver on the sound? Well, sorry to shatter the illusion but silver has no sound. It is more conductive than copper and two similar strands of wire the same size, one in silver and one in copper will see different conductivity and inductive qualities, plus their reaction with the same dielectric insulation will differ slightly (as a direct result). By altering the dimensions of one or the other, both will “sound” the same, and the signal, for most purposes, doesn’t really care whether it’s travelling down a piece of silver or copper, as long as it gets to where it’ going!

4. What about the “KISS” principle and those advocating the simple twisted pair? (usually at a high premium and in silver, usually in a teflon dielectric casing). Not clever. no twisted pair can overcome common mode noise induced into the signal within single ended circuits. Equal pairs are even worse! By using equal pairs, you loose the benefits of reducing the value of the common mode signal noise by increasing the S/N ratio (usually achieved by making the ground return path much more conductive than the signal path). These leads are often marketed with fancy plugs at extortionate prices because they’re simple and cheap to make and therefore generate lots of profit...."

Disclaimer:

This review and technical article is purely the opinion of RFC and it's not specifically direct towards any specific Brand or company. Purely an insight into some practices rampant in the industry.

You can also find more Cable information and for purchase at:

Website: http://referencefidelitycomponents.co.uk
Twitter: @referencefc

Follow @referencefc

Article by Joseph Kendall

Email: joe@downunderaudio.com
Facebook: Downunderaudio
Twitter: @downunderaudio